The Bay Of Pigs Invasion

The Bay of Pigs was an invasion that the CIA had financed which involved training a group of Cuban refugees to land in Cuba. The primary goal of the invasion was to get rid of the communist government led by Fidel Castro. The Outcome of the invasion was unexpected, and the invasion failed miserably. The plan failed due to last minute cancellations of airstrikes, and the lack of knowledge that Castro had ordered 20,000 troops in advance to go to the attack site; this resulted in having the Cuban Air Force dominating the sky, which did not allow the U.S army to fight back. As the invasion went on, the chance of the U.S winning decreased within every hour. President Kennedy then ordered an “air-umbrella” at dawn. This plan demolished the U.S military. Because Kennedy was new in office, he wanted to do the “right thing” and make everyone proud that they voted for him. Unfortunately the CIA had created the plans before Kennedy was in office, and they did not share all of the information with him and manipulated him into approving it. The blame for this failure lies with both Kennedy and the CIA. The motivation behind the invasion was the United States’ tremendous fear of communism. “I mean, now we look back on that and it can seem sort of ridiculous that we ever had a time when we thought the Communists were going to take over the world. But that is indeed what most Americans thought at the time” (Rasenberg 1). The fear communism was more powerful than the desire to respect the sovereignty if other nations, especially one so close to America as

In the late 1800’s Imperialism had begun because the Europeans were greedy for power. They would conquer other small weak nations for many reasons such as a source of raw material, gaining more territory, and gaining control of people and using them as cheap laborers. Spain once was a great nation governing over the Philippines, Guam, Cuba, and Puerto Rico. During this time, the Philippines and Cuba were the only ones fighting for freedom and independence out of the four countries under the control of Spain. Later on, Rumors had spread to the US that the Spanish were being cruel to the Cubans and the Philippines. The US decided to send Ships to protect the sugar resources. The USS Maine had come to Cuba to protect the US citizens that were

USA made the first move by trying to invade Cuba at The Bay of Pigs in 1961. The US failed but this attempted acted as a warning to Fidel Castro, the Prime minister of Cuba, and caused him to seek help (Source E). Therefore, the reason Cuba turned to USSR for help was because of the threat from USA. Another reason they needed help was because the US refused to carry on buying sugar from Cuba which placed them in a poor economic state. After Fidel Castro came to power, he nationalized American companies within

The imperialistic mentality of the American government after the Civil War, led to some degree to the Spanish-American war that would render a great acquisition of land for the United States. However, imperialism would not be the sole factor that led to the war against Spain, but also the sympathy felt by the American government towards Cuba’s efforts in fighting for their independence; additionally, the United States would seek to protect its commercial interests (sugar) in the island. Therefore, after invoking the Spanish to secede from their brutal practices towards Cuban rebels and attain a peaceful end to the situation, the United States arbitrarily sent a navy ship, “The USS Maine” to monitor the area. The ship and 250 American lives

Cuba joined the Soviet Union in 1959 when their leader, Fidel Castro, aligned himself with them. During the time of the missile crisis the U.S. and the Soviet Union were engaged in the Cold War a series of political and economic clashes. The missiles were discovered on October 14, 1962 when the pilot of an American U-2 spy plane photographed a Soviet SS-4 missile being assembled for installation. President Kennedy was notified about the situation on October 16. He called together a group of advisors and officials known as the Executive Committee. The most alarming thing about the missiles to the U.S was that the missiles were being assembled just 90 miles off the coast of Florida. These missiles were capable of quickly reaching targets on the east coast. The Soviets were worried about the number of nuclear weapons targeted at them in Western Europe and Turkey. He saw the missiles in Cuba as a way of leveling the playing field with the U.S. Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev made a big gamble on sending these missiles to

The Cuban Missile Address is delivered October 22nd, 1962 in the Presidential office through a major radio and television address (Podell, Anzovin, and States United 705). Historically, it is worth mentioning that United States had attempted to overthrow Fidel Castro, who was at the time Prime Minister of the Republic of Cuba, in at least two occasions known as the Bay of Pigs Operation and Operation Mongoose, because of his communist regime and close relationship with the Soviet Union (Pious). Then, after the Bay of Pigs incident, Fidel Castro urged Nikita Khrushchev, the Secretary General of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, to send support and weapons to Cuba, because of the fear of another attack to his person/regime, Nikita did by sending missiles capable of carrying weapons of mass destruction, hence, this major crisis that lasted 14 days ending October 28, 1962 (Deinema and Leydesdorff). In addition, the target audience for this speech is the American people as President starts his speech with the phrase, “Good evening, my fellow citizens” (Kennedy); however, the secondary audience would be the Cuban people, whom he describes as captive people, the Soviet Union leaders, whom he directly addresses and even quotes, and Fidel Castro of course (Kennedy). As noted above, the cultural, socio-political context is important to understand the seriousness of this crisis and

The war began in 1898. There was conflict between Spain and the United States. The war started when Cuba wanted to become an independent country and did not want to be ruled by Spain no more. The Cubans rebelled against Spain and Spain tried to stop the rebellion as fast as they could. The United States got into the when the USS Maine was unexplainably sunk down into the ocean. The ship was sent to protect all the US citizens that were over in Cuba. The ship was sitting in Havana. On April 9 Spain said that they wanted a truce. The United States help Cuba create their own government and got them their independence from Spain that they so desperately wanted. Spain declared war on the United States

In January of 1959, became communist under Fidel Castro. The United States tried to stage a coup to get rid of Castro, but the attack failed. In May 1962, the Soviet Union began to secretly ship nuclear warheads to Cuba. In October, U.S. spy planes detected medium range nuclear missiles being installed on the island. In the graphic shown for document D, it is shown that medium range missiles had the potential to reach New Orleans, Miami, and Washington D.C. The United States decided to quarantine all of the incoming ships to Cuba. The United States and Soviet Union officials began diplomatic relations to deactivate the nuclear missiles. Just three days after the missile became functional; Soviets began to remove the missiles. A few months later, in an unpublicized agreement with the Soviet Union, the United States removed the nuclear warheads it had in Turkey. The Cuban Missile Crisis demonstrated the United States’ use of the policy of containment because the United States issued a quarantine of Cuba and also entered in diplomatic talks with the Soviet Union to try to halt the conflict. However the Cuban Missile Crisis also demonstrated how containment was not successful because despite how friendly the two leaders of the Soviet Union and the United States became Cuba still became a communist

America’s entrance in the Spanish-American War was primarily due to the random explosion of the USS Maine on February 15, 1898, which killed 267 service men aboard. This attack leads to Congress’s vote to go to war against Spain. The United States’ desire to expand military overseas also played a part in the American entrance to this war. Economically speaking, the U.S. wanted Cuban crops to come to America, and not only Spain. “The war enabled the United States to establish its predominance in the Caribbean region and to pursue its strategic and economic interests in Asia” (“Spanish-American War”). The United States wanted sole control over the island of Cuba in order to grow the American economy, and the congress stated that President William

During the Cold War, the Cuban Missile Crisis took place. It was when two superpowers were close to causing a nuclear war. Its main origin was when the United States invaded Cuba, on April 10, 1961; which is also known as the Bay of Pigs invasion. After the invasion, previous Prime Minister; Fidel Castro of Cuba, was ‘paranoid’ because he felt like America was planning another attack. So in order to protect his nation, he sought military and economic help from the Soviet Union. Late president Nikita Khrushchev (from USSR), agreed to assist Castro and took immediate action. He installed missiles in Cuba, which the US thought was a threat to the security of their nation. In summary, I think that this was a defensive move by the Cubans.

Flies circle great black lumps as the moist air ravages the corpses. Dried blood soaked into the ground after faceless soldiers brutally destroyed its owners’ lives. These were the stories in the newspapers, the movies, and the films. Horrified by these crimes against humanity, the American public was spurred into action against the Spanish oppressors. the United States invaded Cuba in 1898 to pursue humanitarian efforts.

Good points. When diplomacy fails, and a nation does not wish to partake in war, what actions can be taken to avoid sending troops into war? The United States has experienced war many times throughout the nation’s history, and the internal toll that war can be detrimental if not entirely supported by its citizens. Protests, peace movements, political turmoil, decreased support for combat troops and diminished support for the sitting president are some issues, which a war can draw out from the homeland. Covert actions can assist in the avoidance of war by seeking to gain or sway influence or spark actions in other countries. During the Cold War, the United States was caught several times in trying to interfere with the spread of communism through covert means. President John F. Kennedy was looking to rid communism from Cuba, through secret actions leading to the Bay of Pigs incident. President Ronald Regan administration utilized covert operations referred to as the Iran-Contra affair, which the operation helped arm a sworn enemy in Iran, and provide funding for anti-communist rebels in Nicaragua (Clark 2007, 2-5, 11-12).

The legacy that Truman and his administration left for Eisenhower and Dulles was the transformation of the U.S. into a country that could lead the free world. He set the foundations needed for the U.S. to transition from isolationism, disarmament, and neutrality into a nation which would resist the spread of communism through collective security and arms-buildup. For Dulles and the Eisenhower administration, their determination and resolve would be tested. When it came to crises such as Suez and NATO, the Hungarian revolution, Berlin, and the U-2 incident, U.S. foreign policy was molded and was exemplified through the rhetoric of Eisenhower and Dulles. Their version of American foreign policy had mixed results and mostly kept the status quo.

“The supreme quality for leadership is unquestionably integrity. Without it, no real success is possible, no matter whether it is on a section gang, a football field, in an army, or in an office,” I said during the D-Day Invasion. I showed the way for those in the dark, made them feel confident about themselves. I was a president who lived from (Oct 14, 1890- Mar 28, 1969) and had many struggles and opportunities. Who am I you ask? Dwight D. Eisenhower.

In an attempt to overthrow Castro and prevent the spread of communism throughout Latin America, Kennedy was forced to implement “a watered down plan inherited from the Eisenhower administration” , which involved using CIA trained Cuban rebels to encourage an anti-Castro uprising which would then appear as an internal uprising. This resulted in what historian Theodore Draper described as a “perfect failure” On April 17th 1961, 1500 rebels landed on the Bahia de Cochinos however invaders were swiftly captured or killed and as Kennedy refused to send in USA troops and cancelled a planned air strike in order to feign lack of American involvement, the plan ended in “total humiliating defeat” . Kennedy was enraged that he had signed what he had seen as an “unworkable plan” and that he had “allowed himself to be swept along by sheer bureaucratic momentum” . Despite this he took full responsibility for the failed operation stating in a news conference on March 21st 1961, that while “victory has a hundred fathers, defeat is an orphan” . The Bay of Pigs ‘damaged US relations with foreign nations enormously” and “encouraged Khrushchev’s adventurism” resulting in increased Cold War tensions that demanded the President’s full